


the element of surprise

by allapplesfall



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Dialogue Heavy, Fluff, Gen, Sara Lance Knows Science, anyway i love found families, sara lance probably owns a starling u sweatshirt and has also never not deflected in her life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-04
Updated: 2018-06-04
Packaged: 2019-05-18 01:56:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14843405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allapplesfall/pseuds/allapplesfall
Summary: Sara looks around. “What?”“Were you just in the lab?” Ray asks.“Sure.”“Ehm,” says Stein, “and what, if we could ask, were you doing?”Sara blinks. “Science.”They all stare.





	the element of surprise

**Author's Note:**

> I have a lab report due tonight that counts for a huge part of my chem grade. So, naturally, what did I spend my afternoon doing?
> 
> Writing this. Fuck me.
> 
> Set in early season 3.
> 
> tw for: minor mentions of the Amazo, nothing graphic

“This is nice,” says Amaya. She takes a civilized bite of her salad. “We don’t often get to do this.”

“What, eat?” Nate asks. 

“Eat lunch together, dumbass.” 

Nate kicks Zari under the table. “I was close.”

“Yeah, it is nice,” Ray agrees. “The gang’s all here!”

He’s right—most of the crew are situated in the mess, crowded around the table and perched up on the counters. 

“Except Sara.” Jax frowns. “Should I go look for her or somethin’?” 

“Nah,” says Nate. “She’s probably busy.”

“You’re just scared she’s still mad about that stunt you pulled in the library.”

“Sissy,” Mick chimes in.

“What is it, pick on Nate day?”

Mick lifts his beer with a fake smile.

Stein spins his tiny spoon in his cup of yogurt. “Can’t we just enjoy a calm meal for once?”

Amaya smiles. “Martin.”

He sighs. “I know, I know, vain hopes.” 

Jax eyes the ceiling. “Hey, Gideon?”

“Yes, Mr. Jackson?” 

“Where’s Sara at?”

“Captain Lance is in the lab,” she replies, “finishing up a biological experiment.”

Ray and Stein visibly blanch. 

“The equipment–”

“My project–”

“Highly volatile–”

“ _Voluntarily_ in the lab?”

“I–”

“Guys,” Zari cuts in. “Chill.” 

“Right,” says Ray, taking a breath. “I’m sure whatever she’s doing, Sara has it under control.” 

His voice rises at the end, betraying his lack of faith in his own words.

“Just eat your gluten-free muffin, man.” Jax rolls his eyes. “And Stein, quit worrying, yeah? You’re givin’ me palpitations and shit.”

Amaya, with an enviable grace, shifts the conversation to another topic.

  

- 

 

When Sara walks in about five minutes later, she’s not nearly as ruffled as Zari expected someone conducting a _biological experiment_ to be. Her shirt, a short-sleeved, fake-denim button-down, is unrumpled and done up to a respectable degree. Her hair is pulled back into practical braided up-do. Her demeanor is calm, in Sara’s strong way.

Everyone in the room falls silent at her entrance. 

Sara looks around. “What?”

“Were you just in the lab?” Ray asks.

“Sure.”

“Ehm,” says Stein, “and what, if we could ask, were you doing?”

Sara blinks. “Science.”

They all stare.

“What?” Sara bristles. She steps towards the counter. “I can do science.”

More staring. Nate’s mouth is hanging wide enough to fit a hotdog in. 

“Riiight,” says Zari, drawing the word out.

Sara crosses her arms. “We just picked up an anachronism that’s bacterially-caused. I was analyzing the mutations in the pathogen to understand how to combine Gideon’s future-antibiotics to formulate a vaccine that’ll allow us to neutralize the carrier before it spreads.”

Ray, who just took a healthy sip of ginger ale, chokes and splutters. Stein looks like he’s going to faint dead away. Amaya blinks. Nate reaches out to pinch Sara, as if to test that she’s real; Zari yanks his hand back. 

Jax grins, delighted. “Whoa, Sara,” he says. “Where’s that been hiding?” 

“It hasn’t been hiding,” Sara says tartly. “You just never asked.” 

“So, all those times you kept misunderstanding basic scientific principles…” Stein trails off.

“Gideon, some manakeesh, please.”

“Here you are, Captain.”

Sara reaches into the dispenser and pulls out her lunch. She hops up on the counter to sit next to Jax. At the sight of Stein’s miffed pout, she says, “Don’t be hurt, doc. We know how much fun you get out of condescendingly explaining.” She smirks. “And, to be fair, I really don’t know jack shit about physics.”

“But you know about…” he rolls his hand through the air, “advanced biology and chemistry.”

Sara shrugs. “I’m great.”

“Okay,” Zari says. “But you need to tell us how you learned that.”

“Three semesters at Starling U,” replies Sara, “and a traumatic pirate experience.”

“You went to Starling U?”

“ _Pirate_ experience?”

Amaya bites down on a cherry tomato and chews thoughtfully. “Are you going to elaborate on that?”

Sara pauses. “Nope. Don’t think so.” 

Jax elbows her, and she huffs.

“Fine,” she says. “I was nineteen when I got on the Gambit with Ollie. It was the fall semester of my sophomore year.”

“And you were a chem major? Bio?” Ray asks. 

“Undeclared.” She takes a bite of her manakeesh. “I was pre-med.”

(Oh. Amaya’s heart aches. In some universe out there, there’s a Sara Lance who hands out lollipops to children and knows very different uses for blades.)

“Please tell me you were a sorority girl,” says Nate. “Rah, rah, omega pi alpha!”

“Gooooo Rockets!” Sara mocks in a falsetto. Then she glares at him. “No. But I know a lot of really smart and capable sorority girls, so watch it.”

Mick frowns. “I wanna hear about the pirates.”

Sara narrows her eyes. “They weren’t really pirates, I guess. Have you seen Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog? It was like that, just on a ship and with a lot less singing.”

“Definitely never seen that,” says Nate. Amaya, Zari, Stein, and Jax nod in agreement. Mick rolls his eyes.

“I have,” volunteers Ray. “But…I still don’t really get the comparison.” 

Sara shakes her head. “There were mad scientists. Let’s just leave it at that. I’m a science genius, case closed, conversation over. We should go stop the plague from, like, happening.” 

Amaya hums. “I would’ve liked to go to college,” she says wistfully.

“You didn’t?” Zari frowns.

Amaya grimaces. She says, “There was a war on.”

“Oh.” A pause. “I did college online—I think Gideon has a curriculum in her data core. If you wanted, I could…” 

Amaya beams, and Zari glows like she’s in the presence of an angel.

“Does everyone do college online in 2042?” Ray interrupts, ending the moment. 

Zari’s voice comes out as dry as the Sahara. “Everyone who’s a criminal of the state, sure.” 

“Oh.” 

“I wish I’d gotten to go, too, Amaya,” says Jax. He’s looking at the floor. “But I guess life just has other plans, huh?”

Everyone who knows Jax’s story purses their lips sympathetically; Nate frowns. “Wait, you didn’t go either?” 

Jax shakes his head. “Nah. I mean I tried, after the Time Bureau split us up, but by then I’d already learned more than they could teach me from Gideon. I quit—no degree for me.” 

“But you’re, like, the smartest guy I know.” 

Stein and Ray try not to look too insulted. 

“Yeah, see you thinkin’ that those two are mutually exclusive is kinda a problem.”

Nate flushes.

“Once I busted my knee in my last year of high school, my scholarship fell through, and we couldn’t afford tuition anymore. I spent a couple years as a mechanic, frustrated and mad because I knew there was so much more to know. But hey—now I'd pick being on a timeship, any day.”

“Oof.” Nate reaches out from where he’s leaning against the wall and claps him on back. 

“It’s cool. I’m over it.” 

“Damn right,” Mick growls. “I didn’t go to college either, and I turned out just fine.” 

Sara leans into Jax’s side, her head on his shoulder. “Tell ‘em, Mick,” she says. “We drop-outs and truants need to stick together.”

Jax puts his arm around her. “Still can’t believe you, though. Not telling us you know how to stop diseases and shit?”

“It wasn't really something I enjoyed learning,” replies Sara, quiet enough that those who aren’t Jax have to strain to hear. “But it’s nice to know I can make something good out of it.”

“Speaking of which,” Gideon interrupts. “Captain, this outbreak really should be contained.” 

Sara groans. “Okay, people, that’s our cue.” She glances around the kitchen, glad to see that most people have finished eating. “Let’s go save the world with science.”

“For the record,” pipes up Ray, “we do that a lot.”

Sara pretends not to hear him.

“Quite often, really,” adds Stein. “In most cases, we—”

“Wow,” says Sara, now upright and putting her dish in the sink. “Aren’t we so excited for the first time we’ve ever used science?”

“Totally,” says Jax. 

“Absolutely,” says Amaya.

“Hundred-percent,” says Nate. 

“Wow. Science.” Sara shakes her head. “Can you believe that?"

 

 

 

 


End file.
